President Jimmy Carter marked his commitment to a saner national energy policy in the late 1970s by having solar panels installed at the White House and creating federal tax credits for the use of solar energy. When Ronald Reagan replaced Carter, he took down the solar panels and canceled the tax credits.

The Reagan refusal to put on the energy brakes left Bob Chew looking at a grim future for a business he had created in 1977 out of the passionate belief that people need options to reduce their “environmental footprint.”

In his office on the third floor of an old commercial building just a few yards from Bristol harbor, Chew talks about the places solar energy is taking him and his company, SolarWrights. He points to his current electric bill, which has a balance in his favor because he heats his century-old Bristol home with solar. And he worries that the place where he most wants to do business, the place where he lives, is making it more and more difficult to let the sun shine in.

Talking to Chew provides a glimpse into what might have been had we responded to Jimmy Carter’s challenge to use our talents and imaginations and resources to create real energy alternatives and avoid a dangerous dependence on shaky foreign suppliers. The solar heating systems that Chew designs and installs are just a part of what could have been an innovative and lasting American response. But we blew it. There was some sacrifice involved, so we opted to follow the Reagan lead and keep on guzzling. We slid into what Chew refers to as the “McMansion and SUV mentality.” We have no national energy policy. We are 5 percent of the world’s population, using 25 percent of its energy.

“We have to use all sources,” said Chew. “We have to couple it with the way we build our homes and buy our vehicles.”

He pushed on, surviving those dark days of the Reagan administration when so many solar businesses shut down. And he continues to offer a choice free of Middle East uncertainty.

SolarWrights is growing. On Monday, Chew had crews installing systems in Danbury and Bridgeport, Conn. There are continuing school solar projects on Cape Cod. On Nov. 6, Chew will attend a “flip the switch” party in Westerly. He usually enjoys such events, signaling as they do the completion of another solar project. But this one, he fears, is the last one in Rhode Island.

In an opinion piece written in The Providence Business News last week, Chew pointed out that Governor Carcieri’s five-point energy plan puts an end to incentives for solar systems in Rhode Island and threatens the solar industry in the state. What Massachusetts and Connecticut offer, Rhode Island does not.

So Chew and others concerned about the future of solar energy are holding a “Save R.I. Solar” rally today at 11:30 a.m. on the north side of the State House.

Chew says that his is the last full-time solar company in the state, so he feels it is up to him to carry the message.

In 1973, when he graduated from college with a degree in environmental science, energy policy was heavily weighted toward nuclear power.

“That was not the way to go,” he said.

He started offering the solar alternative in 1977 and he has been the true believer ever since. There has to be wind power and there has to be solar power and there has to be a way to bring all the possibilities into sane, workable balance. Because if we continue as we are, some nut case with a bomb in an oilfield could leave us all wondering why the heck we didn’t do something before it was too late.

“We’re in a very dangerous situation,” said Bob Chew.